Dallas officials reassure city that 911 problems are fixed

After two families claimed deaths due to 911 issues, Assistant Dallas Police Department Chief David Pughes said he is confident it will not happen again

By EMS1 Staff

DALLAS — Dallas officials ensured the city that the 911 issues are fixed and no other problems will happen again.

FOX4 News reported that Assistant Dallas Police Department Chief David Pughes said the department is working hard to make sure first responders are able to get to calls quickly. The promise comes after two families claim they had loved ones die because they could not get help quick enough.

Related articles

“We were hanging on by a thread, trying to manage the operations,” Chief Pughes said.

Chief Pughes said the department has increased staff in the call center and is answering calls in an average of two seconds.

"I feel assured, given our current staffing and communications equipment, that we will not experience those problems again,” Chief Pughes said.

The department originally cited T-Mobile as the cause of the 911 problems, but now says they aren’t sure if they were entirely to blame.

“As far as the technical aspects when we had all the calls spikes and T-Mobile specifically, I don't know how much of that attributed to the long wait times,” Chief Pughes said. “I think it was a compounding situation where we call high periods of spiked calls coming into the call center. With limited staffing that was in there that really wasn't adequate, I don't think you can blame any one thing.”

The department has also increased morale at the call center with air purifiers, new lighting and a decompression room where dispatchers can go after a stressful call.

EMS1 is revolutionizing the way in which the EMS community
finds relevant news, identifies important training information,
interacts with each other and researches product purchases
and suppliers.
It has become the most comprehensive and trusted online destination for prehospital and emergency medical services.